PHILIPSBURG--TelEm Group reports that an interruption in Internet services between 7:00 and 11:45am Wednesday was traced to faulty power connections at a Cable and Wireless substation in Puerto Rico.
TelEm Group Technical Department engineers and technicians were busy all morning with their counterparts at another Cable and Wireless substation in Miami, Florida, which in turn coordinated with its station technician in Puerto Rico to resolve the issue.
According to TelEm Network Engineering and Planning Group Manager Jed Carty, all interrupted services were fully restored at 11:45am Wednesday after Cable and Wireless identified the problem as a failure in the power grid in Puerto Rico combined with the failure of the company’s own backup generator unit.
“By all accounts, several other islands that make use of the upstream service offered by Cable and Wireless in Miami and Puerto Rico were similarly affected by the power outage,” said Carty. He apologised to customers for the interruption in service, which was beyond TelEm Group’s control.
“We are continuing to monitor the situation and will be speaking further with Cable and Wireless to see what provisions they can additionally put in place to better secure our Internet connections to Miami so that we can continue to provide a strong and reliable service to our customers in St. Maarten,” said Carty.
Customers still experiencing problems with their Internet connections following Wednesday morning’s interruptions should restart their modems as a first step and, if unsuccessful, should call TelEm Group’s Helpdesk at 548-HELP for further assistance.
